Malam (teacher/Mr.)

Our language classes on the porch

Smooth (in a good way) is one way to describe him.  Our “Casa” teacher is the best English speaker we have met so far in Niger, which can be good for understanding meaning and grammar, but is maybe too much of a crutch for struggling through the language.  He has taught “Casa” before, so he is very organized in his approach to teaching grammar.  He is a teacher of teachers, and he is a very good teacher.  So what I find absolutely amazing are all of his activities.  He is a teacher of teachers as his full time job.  He is on the board of the current political party and very active in politics (a full time job in the States).  As with most people in the Sahel, he is a farmer and grows much of his food for the year.  He is the director of a school that the church runs teaching computer skills.  He is the vice treasurer of the national EC church and general secretary of his home congregation.  He is father to six children.  He is our teacher and is helping us with many of the details of settling in our home.  And he does it all with a pretty good sense of humor!